Anxiety
by Papersak
Summary: When Zero disappears from the arcade, Alice is nominated to find out why. But what can she do if he won't talk to her?
1. Absence

(AN: I have been playing with this story for a while and while I still don't think the characters are at their best, I'm thinking I'm just gonna post this anyway. Still on a mission to make this pairing fan-canon so here goes~)

* * *

It was another night at the Extreme Arcade. The DDR players were scattered about, trying the assorted Bemani games on that side of the building. But there was something different about that week; something that nobody mentioned the previous week, but that day, Emi decided to speak up and ask the following question...

"Has anybody seen Zero?"

Rage, Gus, Alice, Akira, and Yuni looked around at each other. No one gave a response, but they could tell that the general answer was "no."

"I think the last time he showed up was two weeks ago," Rage pointed out. "He didn't say anything about leaving, did he?"

Emi crossed her arms. "I hope he didn't just stop coming..."

"Oh, he'll be back," Yuni said with confidence. She glanced at Alice, who noticed her stare and focused her dark blue eyes shyly in her lap. "Still," the blonde continued, "I wonder what he's up to. He always says he's busy but I'll bet he's just making it up."

"Well, it's his loss for not coming here," Rage said. "Come on Emi." He motioned to the DDR X machine and the short haired girl followed.

"Wait a sec," Gus started, having previously noted Yuni's gesture, "Alice, don't tell me you and-"

"No, no!" she interrupted nervously. "Zero and I, um, we're like friends..."

"But that's pretty good for Zero," Yuni argued. "He's distant to everybody, but I see him hanging around you all the time when he's here. Am I right?"

"I... uh..." she muttered. "Maybe not_ all_ the time..."

Yuni smirked. "Well, it's no fun if you don't wanna talk about him. Anyway, you're sure he didn't seem different two weeks ago?"

Alice shook her head. "I think he was fine the last time he was here. And he hasn't told me anything." She paused. "But I am kind of worried about him. He never said anything about leaving the arcade for good."

"Then you should go ask him what's up."

"Huh?"

Yuni's smile hadn't faded. "You wanna know what's going on, don't you? So what's stopping you?"

Alice averted her vision. "I guess you're right. Tomorrow, I'll go see if he's home and find out what's going on..."

Gus blinked. "You know where he lives?"

Alice squeaked from embarrassment and nodded.

The following warm afternoon, Alice made her way to Zero's residence, fearful from not knowing what to expect. The unpredictable man would do anything from let her inside to yell at her when she arrived. Yet her curiosity was greater than her fear, and the girl continued to walk to the familiar building.

She rang the doorbell and waited patiently, holding her hands in front of her. She rolled back and forth on her heels as what seemed like a minute or two passed, until she heard the lock on the door click open. She straightened her posture and glanced at the man inside.

Zero stared at her blankly and blinked. "Did you need something?"

Alice found it easier to stare at his neck than his eyes. "I, well, we were wondering what happened to you. You haven't been at the arcade in a while and..."

"Oh." He rubbed his forehead and fiddled with his troublesome bangs. "I haven't been getting much sleep lately."

Worried, Alice questioned him. "Why, is something wrong?"

"It shouldn't concern you," he replied. He sounded a little dark to her, but he continued calmly. "I'll come back to the arcade, but I'm not up for it right now."

"All right," she said, pointing her fingers at each other. "Just remember to come back, okay?"

"I will."

He closed the door before she had the opportunity to say goodbye.

* * *

(Still a couple more chapters to go. Can't believe I'm writing chapters again and not so many one shots. o_o)


	2. Nightmares

(I think I've kinda written the ending enough so I'm just gonna upload these chapters rather rapidly. Considering I usually only post like once a week. xP There will prolly only be one more chapter after this, or else a fourth chapter will be really really short.)

* * *

The spotlights flew across the stage in random directions to the beat of the pounding music. But Alice only focused on her moves; the faces of the audience were all a blur to her, and she danced as if no one was watching. Her hips swayed, her arms swung, and she spun as her hair swirled around her.

And then she stumbled.

But someone caught her.

Which was strange, because her teammates were not at her side in that performance. Why was that, she suddenly wondered. It all made sense when she looked at the person who caught her: the familiar purple queen.

"Wh-why are you here again?" Alice asked. The music came to a halt, the audience faded into black, and then it was obvious: she and the queen were in Alice's dream.

Queen Zukin pulled Alice back on her feet. "That's not how to greet someone who just saved you." The music began to play again, and the audience reappeared. They were cheering the two of them on as if nothing went wrong. The two girls danced instinctively and mirrored each other's movements.

Despite the return of the music, Queen Zukin continued to communicate with Alice. Her voice was at its normal volume but managed to drown out the music so Alice could hear her. "I'm here to tell you something about that surgeon guy. I visit his dreams sometimes, but they're never any fun anymore."

A few dramatic turns later, she caught her breath and continued. "I wouldn't even call them dreams; they've turned to nightmares. When you wake up, you need to find out how to get them to stop."

Alice also spoke normally. "Um, you can change that, though, can't you?"

"Of course I can!" she responded quickly. "But these kinds of recurring dreams are usually caused by something bad that happened outside his dream. Those outside factors are things that my powers can't fix. So _you_ have to fix that!"

"Why me?" she asked.

"I have my reasons, don't question me!"

"But... I can't do much," Alice doubted aloud. "He doesn't want to talk to me about it, and I don't want to bother him... I don't even know _how_ I could help if I don't know what's going on."

Queen Zukin glared at her. "That's no excuse. Especially not when I could give you an idea of what's going through his mind."

Alice blinked. "What do you mean?"

"If you want, I'll show you his dream."

"Isn't that an invasion of privacy?" Alice asked nervously.

"Do you want to help him, or not?"

Alice took a few dance moves to ponder the question. They ended the routine with a victory pose and the audience cheered. While the crowd shouted, Alice faced the other woman and answered. "I'll go."

"That's more like it," the queen said with a smile. She clapped her hands and the light intensified so much that Alice had to shut and cover her eyes.

When she opened them, she realized she was in another location. The room was dimly lit, and it took her a few seconds for her eyes to readjust. As she regained her vision, she tried to take note of her surroundings. She was in a room about the size of her bedroom, there were tools well organized on shelves, the floor was tiled... and then she saw the back of a surgeon and his female patient, which united everything together. She was watching an operation, she concluded, and if she looked closely at the hair tucked beneath a cap, she could see that the doctor was Zero.

Worried about how noticeable she was, she looked at herself. But when she brought her hand up to her face, she couldn't see it.

"No one can see or hear us," she heard Queen Zukin's voice say. "Feel free to look around."

Though still in doubt, Alice tiptoed around the room. She listened to the soft beeping of the heart monitor on the side as she tried to get a good look at Zero from the front. She veered her sight away from the opened patient and tried to look at his face.

She was surprised. Just from looking at his eyes, he seemed no different than he was in real life; calm, focused, and quiet. He was emotionless, yet he sincerely tried to do his best to save this person. She could see so much in his eyes, so much she had been unable to see before.

If things were going so well, though... why was this deemed a nightmare?

Alice turned around and looked through the observation window and her eyes widened. There were _tons_ of faceless spectators watching him. She couldn't see it, but she could feel the intensity from the other side of the wall. They were afraid, probably for the life of the sleeping patient.

_Beeeeeeeeep..._

Alice gasped and turned around. Zero stood there in shock with his hands pulled away from the body in fear. He looked through Alice and at the window. The people were crying and screaming out of hate for the seemingly incompetent surgeon.

Zero took a few steps back and Alice ran behind him as if the sea of people could see and hurt her. She shut her fearful eyes tight.

And once again, someone grabbed onto her. Queen Zukin (she assumed) had pulled her out of that dream and to somewhere safe.

It was then when Alice woke up abruptly. She took a few deep breaths, for her heart was beating faster than normal.

But it wasn't the fear of the mob that stood out to her in that dream. Being in his dream allowed her to understand what he was going through, and those feelings were what put tears in her eyes.


	3. Sympathy

(I wanted to make this fluffier, but let's face it... Zero has personal space and Alice is shy. It's hard to write. 'Daw well.)

* * *

_Ding-dong~_

Zero get up from his couch and answered the door to find Alice there once again, staring at the ground. He didn't greet her; he simply stared at her until she decided to talk.

"Um... could I come in? Please?"

Unable to say no to Alice, Zero opened the door and stepped out of her way. She timidly came back into the familiar room and kept walking forward until Zero shut and locked the door.

She hugged herself before mumbling. "I... I know what's been keeping you up at night."

Zero became tense. Neither of them faced each other, but his lack of a response sent fear down her spine. The brief silence pressured her to continue.

"I don't know if you'll believe me but Queen Zukin showed me your dream."

He gritted his teeth, angry at that so-called queen. But he calmed himself down shortly afterward. "If she was spying on my dream, why didn't she fix it?"

Alice turned around to look at the back of his head. "Because she said that you had been having it a lot and it probably came from somewhere else. Zero... did something happen? At the hospital?"

He crossed his arms and looked straight into her eyes; a serious expression covered his face. "I killed that woman."

His intimidation shot through her and she looked at the floor. Then she shook her head. "I don't believe you."

Zero raised an eyebrow.

"I-I... saw you in the dream. You had no intention of letting that person die. You didn't kill anyone... it was an accident."

Zero sighed. "A death is a death," he argued, then continued hesitantly, "and by not being able to save her I-"

"It's not your fault," she interrupted. She gulped and found the courage to look at his face. He continued to stare her down; she saw his surprise from her sudden confidence, yet he was willing to hear her out.

"Everyone was just as shocked as you were in your dream. They wanted to blame you out of anger, but they were wrong. I don't know how it happened, but I think," she paused, finding the next part hard to say while looking at him, "I think you cared about her life. So please don't blame yourself."

She watched as he walked past her and sat back down on his couch, staring at the television without paying attention to its content. "That's easier said than done." As if he had a headache, he put his forehead in his hand, letting his silver hair gently cover his face.

Alice sat down next to him.

"So um... will you be okay?" she asked. Her hand rested on his shoulder.

The touch caught his attention. "I will," he replied casually, looking up to her face. Her azure eyes were so kind that he was drawn more and more to them, almost unaware that he was moving his head closer to hers for about a second...

Alice flinched and pulled her hand back. "Th-then I guess we'll see you on Friday, right?"

"... yeah." He was disappointed, but tried not to show it.

She hopped out of her seat. "All right." She bowed. "Goodbye," she said quickly and politely before skipping out the door.

"Alice," Zero called before she left. The sunlight from outside glowed on the side of her face as she waited for what he had to say.

"... thank you," he said, sort of embarrassed.

"You're welcome," she said sweetly before taking her leave.

* * *

(I do not want to break Zero, though I'm sure he's way out of character anyway. xP Guess there will be another epilogue-ish chapter.)


	4. Return

(Last chapter. Not much happens, just a conclusion kinda thing. Eh. xP)

* * *

The dark blue haired dancer excitedly entered the Extreme Arcade, and as she predicted, Zero was surrounded by her chatty female friends who were happy to see him back and were filled with several questions and stories.

She skipped to the crowd of familiar people and stood around until Emi noticed her arrival.

"Hey Alice!" she shouted over the music of the arcade. "So it's true? You were at Zero's house the other day and got him to come back?"

The aforementioned man briskly walked away from the conversation before it got awkward.

"Um, yeah that's technically what happened," she said.

"So how didja do it? Didja find out why he was gone?" Emi asked.

"I um, don't know if he wants everybody to know," Alice replied, not knowing what to tell them.

"What's so secret about it?" Yuni asked slyly.

"U-um," she started, "he was gone because of personal reasons, and I umm... we talked it over and he came back or... something like that."

She glanced across the room at Zero as if seeking his help, but he was being interrogated by the male members of the arcade.

"You did a good thing, getting him to come back," Emi said with confidence. "I don't know much about him, but I think he needs to take a break sometimes."

Alice smiled sadly. "I think so, too."

* * *

"That is how I fixed that man's dreams," Queen Zukin bragged to Louis.

"If I may comment," the king began, "wasn't it Alice who fixed his dreams in the end?"

"But I chose her," Queen Zukin argued. "She was the only one who could get through to that stubborn closed-up surgeon. Had I not shown her the dream, things never would've improved. So I deserve credit for using my power to solve problems in a world you would think my power couldn't reach!" She laughed out of satisfaction. "And now, his dreams will revert to normal. A perfect victory for me!"

"Why did you choose her?"

With a big grin, she answered him. "I know that man trusts her because I've seen her in his dreams!"

* * *

( needs to let people use dashes instead of borders because that other border line makes it look like my fic ended and all. xP  
I had no idea where to put the last part, but I thought it needed to be said. Perhaps in its current position, it sorta leaves room for fluff sequels. xP

Uhm. And that's the end. Thank you reviewers for reviewing~ :3)


End file.
